Connie Jordan (MGTA). Short handicap saw drivers Walter Mathison (Jaguar), Doug McDougal (Riley Spec), J Howlett (Ford V8 Spec) and K Bailey (Ford A Spec). The Open handicap had Jack Wright (Ford Spec), Chas Whatmore (Studebaker), KeithThallon (Jaguar SS 100), and Rex Law (Austin).19 On 26 February 1949 Chas Whatmore set a new record of 44.1 at Whites Hill hillclimb and again light rain made the surface slippery.20 QMSC had requested the Brisbane City Council, the owners of the Whites Hill site, to resurface the track. They cited that a lack of a sealed surface precluded the holding of the Australian Hillclimb Championships in Brisbane. The AHC would attract many thousands of southern visitors. The council estimated that this cost to seal would be approximately £2015 and advised that the expenditure was not warranted.21 However the major event of 1949 was the Australian Grand Prix. On 21 January Lowood was selected to be the venue with the AGP on Sunday 19 June subject to approval by the appropriate authorities.22 Strathpine was seen as too limited in length to hold a Grand Prix. It is reported the RAAF apparently refused to give permission and the newspapers suggested the local residents would not allow such an event to be held on a Sunday. However previous events at Lowood had occurred on Sundays. Then a search for a suitable site was undertaken where four sites being considered with Leyburn being selected as the only useable site although it had never before been used for racing. Previously a base for B24 Liberator bombers (Squadron 99) during WW2 it was now divided among three farming families, Hamblin, Porter and Backhouse. A basic triangular layout this circuit had a length of 4.3 miles and was approximately 6 miles north of the town about where Liberator Avenue is today. The National Competition Committee of the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) which until 1953 was the controlling authority for Australian Motor Sport had set out new guidelines to raise the public status of this event. This included rotating the event to all States so it was truly a National Grand Prix, incorporating a massed or scratch race start as occurred with Grands Prix of other nations, over a substantial distance and only allow the term grand prix title. This was the first AGP held as a scratch race as previous AGPs were held under a handicap starting order of either one at a time on their handicap time or in engine capacity groups but not all together. The AGP was held on 18 <strong>September</strong> 1949 where a crowd of between 25,000 to 30,000 spectators watch the Grand Prix won by John Crough in a 3.5 litre Delahaye from Ray Gordon (MGTC), Arthur Rizzo (Riley Special), Peter Critchley (MGTB Special), Allan Larsen (Cadillac Special), Curley Brydon (MGTC), Irwin Luke (Bugatti Type 37), Theo Trevethan (Ford V8 Special), H McGuire (MGTC) and Col Robinson (MGTC).23 A handicap event was conducted in conjunction with the Grand Prix with the results Gordon from Luke, Brydon, Critchley and Crouch.24 Final event for 1949 was a hill climb at Kenmore on 4 December. The only location found is a tricky course of 660 yards ‘on a property opposite the Kenmore Sanatorium’ and later ‘a Church was built in the middle of the hill’.25 The handicap section was won by J Hillhouse (MGTC, 28.9 secs less 5.5 secs = handicap time 23.4), J McLennan (MGTC, 29.2 – 5.5 = 23.7), Allan Larsen (Cadillac, 26.4 – 2.5 = 24.8), L Austin (MGTC, 29.5 – 5.5 = 24.0), Jack Wright (Ford Special, 28.2 – 4.0 = 24.2), Chas Whatmore (Studebaker, 24.5 less no handicap time = 24.5), Rex Law (Cadillac Special, 24.8), Keith Saunders (Ford Vaux, 30.2 – 5.25 = 24.95), Theo Trevethan (Ford Special, 29.0 – 4.0 = 25.0), S James (Ford V8, 29.3 – 4.25 = 25.05), F Reid (Hillman Minx, 40.6 – 12.0 = 28.6) and D Mason (Ford Vaux, 34.4 – 5.0 = 29.4)26 REFERENCES: 1 Ludvigsen, Karl, “Classic Grand Prix Cars the Front-engined Era 1906 – 1960” 2nd edition, p 107, Haynes Publication, 2006. 2 Telegraph, 4 March 1946, p10. 3 Truth, 10 March 1946, p9 4 Courier Mail, 27 January 1928, p13 5 Marks, Roger R., Queensland Airfields WW2 – 50 Years On, R and J Marks, Brisbane, 1994. 6 Telegraph, 25 November 1946, p12 7 Courier Mail, 12 August 1946, p8 8 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia no 37 1946-47, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Canberra, 1949, pp708 -710 8a Courier Mail, 25 November 1946, p3 9 Courier Mail, 23 June 1947, p8 10 Courier Mail, 11 August 1947, p7 11 Telegraph, 26 July 1947, p11 12 Courier Mail, 15 December 1947, p1 13 Telegraph, 22 <strong>September</strong> 1947, p12 14 Truth, 7 December 1947, p20 15 Truth, 24 January 1948, p10 16 Courier Mail, 30 March 1948, p 17 Telegraph, 17 May 1948, p 18 Courier Mail, 21 June 1948, p5 19 Courier Mail, 9 August 1948, p6 20 Telegraph, 26 February 1949, p26 21 Telegraph, 9 July 1949 p13 22 Telegraph 21 January 1949 p27 23 The Official 50-Race History of the Australian Grand Prix, R and T Publishing, Sydney, 1986, pp 138-147 24 Toowoomba Chronicle, 19 <strong>September</strong> 1949, p1 25 Motorsport in Queensland, Vol 1, Number 3, 3 November 1953, p10. 26 Telegraph 5 December 1949 p29 62 The <strong>Octagon</strong> - <strong>September</strong> <strong>2016</strong>
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